"One" Outstanding Book

No matter your age, bullying WILL happen and when it does, it is important that one can recognize it and know how to deal with it. Some people do, yet with the outstanding rates of depression, suicide and bullying itself, one could get the impression that not everyone does.

In “One”, Kathryn Otoshi simply shares with us how easy standing up can be and that there is a little kindness in everyone. It is aimed in a way that allows children to understand and take interest in the message that the book shares, althoughh I could never imply that it was aimed towards anyone in particular. The fact that it’s a picture book takes nothing away from the entertaining and beneficial storyline of the mean colour. His name was red and he always picked on poor blue. When no one stood up for him, red started to pick on ALL of the colours. But when the colours met number One, they all seemed to enjoy his company and that made red get very angry. Can “One” really make a difference?

The knowledge that this book holds is cleverly hidden in the pages using a variety of metaphors. It only takes one to stand up, and it just so happened that the person standing up was a “number One.”
The simplicity of the pictures showed what was going on in an eye catching way, without being too chaotic or distracting. The best part of the appearance, I would have to say would be the way each character’s name was colour coded. Somehow the slight draw of attention really affected how I saw each character. Since each personality was somewhat focused around the stereotypes of their colour, seeing the colour as I read it reminded me and helped me understand what Kathryn was going for. The layout of each page was organized and not too busy.

When stories are short, they tend to be all about the message, while the plot itself is predictable and lacking the suspense needed to draw in the reader’s attention. Althoughh this story isn’t an extreme cliffhanger or anything, it was easy to follow and had little surprises throughout the book. The ending is surely not like any other bullying books you might come across. It has a refreshing ending that will be sure to make you smile.

The cover of the book drew me in from the start. It’s funny how something as simple as a one syllable title, a white cover and a blob for a picture can be more effective than anything else. The seemingly uninteresting cover got me wondering, what the book could be about. After all when you look at a cover of a book and it gives away the story, it’s not a very surprising read. However, since I had no knowledge of the plot with one glance, it was an enjoyable surprise when I started to find out the plot.

I honestly tried to find something bad to say about this book but it’s just a breath of fresh air. It has a happy ending, a creative plot and using metaphors, a clear and legitimate message. I concluded that anyone could benefit from the wise words, and that anyone could enjoy the cute little tale. You could categorize this book as too “young” for yourself, just because of the way that the author shares it with us but the fact that it’s a picture book takes nothing away from the entertainment and knowledge it holds. NoONE should miss out on the ONEderful story of “ONE” and unlike the ONE in the book, you don’t want to be the ONE missing out.